Forms of Address in Chilean Spanish Kelley Bishop

Forms of Address in Chilean Spanish Kelley Bishop Jim Michnowicz North Carolina State University, USA Abstract: The present investigation examines possible social and linguistic factors that influence forms of address used in Chilean Spanish with various interlocutors. A characteristic of the Spanish of Chile is the use of a variety of forms of address for the second person singular, tú, vos, and usted, with corresponding spoken conjugations (Lipski 1994). Previous studies have posited that whereas the pronominal voseo is still stigmatized by Chile’s middle and upper classes, the mixed verbal voseo is gaining ground among the educated sectors of the population (Torrejón 1986, 1991). The current study uses linguistic survey results taken from eighty-one residents of Santiago, Chile, to test these predictions quantitatively. The results show a V-shaped distribution of verbal voseo in terms of age and social class. Young professional-class speakers are those who report using verbal voseo most frequently. Survey data are compared to recorded and observed interactions among speakers. Interactional data suggest that the frequency of vos is under- reported in the survey but that the essential pattern reported by speakers is accurate. Keywords: Chilean Spanish, forms of address, voseo 1. Introduction mong the features that distinguish many dialects of contemporary Latin American Spanish from those of the Iberian Peninsula is the existence of voseo, an informal Aform of address used with a single interlocutor. The form exhibits variation in terms of acceptability and contexts of use depending on dialect, ranging from being the preferred form in areas such as the River Plate region to being heavily stigmatized, as is the case in areas of Venezuela (Lipski 1994: 159–61). In Chilean Spanish in general, although overt (pronominal) voseo is stigmatized, some studies have suggested an increasing acceptance of verbal voseo among urban speakers (Torrejón 1986, among others). The goal of the present study is to test quantitatively the observations made by previous researchers on Chilean verbal voseo by ap- plying multivariate statistical analysis to data obtained through linguistic surveys and recorded observations. Statistical analysis of this kind provides a more concrete picture of variation in forms of address than that provided by previous work. Additionally, a comparison of survey and observed results will address questions of reliability for different data collection techniques. 2. Origins of Chilean Voseo The use of voseo is one of the most characteristic features of many dialects of Latin American Spanish and has even been called a symbol of linguistic identity for the area (Cisneros E. 1998: 90). In his 1981 study, Páez Urdaneta estimated that approximately 47% of the Latin American population was in contact with voseo and that, geographically, the area where voseo was used was twice that of the area where voseo was not used. As voseo fell out of favor with Peninsular speakers by the eighteenth century, it also fell into disuse among speakers in areas of Latin Bishop & Michnowicz / Forms of Address in Chilean Spanish 415 America in constant contact with Spain (Mexico, the Caribbean, and most of the Andes), but this change did not permeate the further reaches of the colonies, such as Central America and the Southern Cone (Cisneros E. 1998: 89; see Rona 1967; Páez Urdaneta 1981; Benavides 2003; and Weeks 2005 for a more complete history of vos). In the case of Chile, voseo dominated in educated speech until the end of the nineteenth century. During this time, Venezuelan gram- marian Andrés Bello relocated to Chile, and the use of voseo by his adopted compatriots was met by his strong disapproval. Bello and his disciples aided in securing the prominence of the tú form. The response to Bello’s criticism was quite strong; voseo was stigmatized, and tuteo was seen as the “correct” form of address (Torrejón 1986: 680). Nevertheless, the “authentic” voseo (to use Torrejón’s term, i.e., pronoun vos used with corresponding verb form) was not eradicated completely—instead the form was relegated to the lower social classes (Lipski 1994: 161). In the class that Torrejón refers to as semiculta—those who were in contact both with the lower class and the educated class—there is evidence that voseo was not completely eliminated (1986: 680). The pronoun vos was the primary target for stigmatization as it is the most salient feature of the form. This continues to be the case today (Stevenson 2007). The verb forms that correspond to voseo appear to have survived that era and are present in modern authentic voseo and mixed verbal voseo. The latter is what Lipski refers to as a crypto-voseo, in which the verb conjugation that corresponds to voseo “disguises itself” behind the subject pronoun tú (1994: 161). Thus Chilean speakers will frequently use the pronoun tú, or a null pronoun, with a verb form belonging to vos, for example, (tú) hablái instead of (tú) hablas ‘you speak’. Historically, the expansion of the mixed verbal voseo corresponds to the 1960s—a time of great social change in Chile (Benavides 2003: 620). The country experienced a simultaneous diminishing of and negative reaction against the importance of prescriptive norms (Benavides 2003: 620). In terms of the extension of verbal voseo in Chile, most studies are in agreement that the center of diffusion of the form is the capital and that it dominates from the city of Antofagasta to the south. Some studies (e.g., Benavides 2003: 620) claim that the southern island of Chiloé and the northern areas that border Bolivia and Peru prefer tuteo, whereas other investigations show variation between voseo and tuteo in these regions. The authentic voseo, in which the pronoun vos is used with corresponding verb forms, is more common in rural areas and in lower social classes in urban areas (Benavides 2003: 620). 3. Previous Studies of Chilean Voseo Voseo throughout Latin America has been widely studied (e.g., see Lapesa 1991; Rona 1967; Fontanella de Weinberg 1979; and Páez Urdaneta 1981 among many others). Most previous studies of the Chilean voseo consist of a cataloging of its varying types. In his 1967 book Geografía y morfología del voseo, Rona designates three types of voseo: type I, which maintains the original diphthongs -áis and -éis; type II, in which the original diphthongs are reduced to the strong vowels -ás and -és; and type III in which the diphthong -áis is maintained in the first conjugation but is reduced to the weak vowel-ís in the second and third conjugations. The prevailing verbal voseo in Chile corresponds most closely to Rona’s type III. According to researchers such as Torrejón (1986, 1991) and Morales Pettorino (1998), the possible forms of address for the second person singular are as follows: the authentic tuteo (pronoun tú used with the corresponding verb conjugation, such as tú tienes), the authentic voseo (pronoun vos used with the corresponding verb conjugation, such as vos tenís), the mixed pronominal voseo (pronoun vos used with a verb conjugation that corresponds with tú, such as vos tienes), and the mixed verbal voseo (pronoun tú used with a verb conjugation that corresponds with vos, such as tú tenís). Both authentic voseo and mixed verbal voseo use the same verbal inflexions, as documented in Torrejón (1986) and Morales Pettorino (1998). The present tense Chilean verbal voseo forms of regular verbs ending in -ar, -er, and -ir are llegar > llegái; comer/vivir > comís/vivís. 416 Hispania 93 September 2010 Much of the current knowledge regarding the Chilean voseo comes from Torrejón’s studies of the use of mixed verbal voseo in the educated classes in Chile. Torrejón (1986) uses his informal observations as first a student and then a professor to give an outline of the family and social relationships in which verbal voseo is given and received. He posits that the form is becoming more accepted by younger speakers while becoming less a target of stigmatization by older speakers of the upper class. It is these older speakers who made the verbal voseo popular in the educated class in the 1950s and 1960s, but according to Torrejón these speakers no longer use verbal voseo as frequently when compared to their prior use of the form. Tor- rejón attributes this surge in the popularity of verbal voseo to three major social factors: (1) a combined dissolution of the previously well-defined hierarchy with processes of social leveling, (2) young educated speakers’ desire to break with the linguistic patterns of their parents, and (3) the increased importance of institutions such as high schools and universities that served to spread the form. In his 1991 article, Torrejón further develops this outline using Brown and Gilman’s (1960) criteria of solidarity and equality. He divides Chilean society into three groups: the educated class, the working class, and the semieducated class. The semieducated class consists of an intermediate group that maintains daily contact with the groups on the extremes of the social spectrum but seeks to enter the educated class. He finds the use of the formalusted to be in line with the principles of solidarity and equality—usted is often used in situations that lack solidarity or for unequal social levels or age groups. Usted may also be used to express intimacy between romantic partners or to address children, which follows a similar pattern to other varieties of Latin American Spanish (see Lipski 1994). He also suggests that the mixed verbal voseo is common among younger speakers of the educated class—but only to a certain age, at which point they begin to prefer tuteo for informal relationships. Uber (2004) agrees, reporting that in Chile, tuteo is the most common form of address, with less frequent use of the formal usted and the mixed verbal voseo being used only in cases where there was a high level of solidarity.

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